I have friends who are very sweet people but are scatterbrained and careless and I don't lend them things. I don't want to hear "oh sorry, Junior stepped on it, you know how kids are" or "Fluffy used your cashmere sweater as a scratching post" as if it were just "one of those things". Situations like that are preventable if people just take normal care. Problem is... a lot of people don't. Once you've had a few incidents, it becomes very easy to say "no". And oddly enough, the people who are the most careful and trustworthy don't ask to borrow. They do responsible things like rent or go to the library, or buy their own.

She is a person that we know from church and her kid is friends with our kid (age 4). She's always crying poor and seems to think we're rich and need to share everything with her. Her husband seem to be depressed all the time or maybe he's just got a downer personality. Anyway, I've never known someone so brazen about expecting us to share things.

She called today since she hadn't heard from my wife and left a message that was nagging in the guise of uncertainty.

"I checked at home and the babysitter said she didn't see the DVD. But I'm sure you must have brought it-maybe she just didn't know where you put it. Hopefully that's it since I'm counting on this to be a babysitter for my kids tonight while I'm busy." (her husband is home but seems to not be able to watch the kids).

So Mrs. Pusser called her and said I don't want to loan out box sets after having a recent problem. She said, "Oh I understand. My son just ruined a cd-rom we borrowed and I had to buy a new one then I bought the wrong one and they weren't happy."

Glad to see my worries were valid. So then she asked my wife what non box-set DVDs I had that she could borrow. She said that we don't have many kids discs. She asked if we'd bought "The Incredibles" yet. We have not.

Mrs. Pusser suggested she try the library which is two blocks from her house. She didn't want to drag the kids there. "I'm not sure what we'll find. Did you notice what they have?" OI!

I kept saying "go to the video store and spend $3" but Mrs. Pusser didn't pass that on to her.



Maybe I'm just overreacting.

Nope... you've been much more patient than I would. She sounds pretty brazen and inconsiderate. I'd suspect her of living next door to us, but there are no 4 year olds. I'd swear it's the same woman....

I'd keep asking that co-worker, or offer to come over and help him look. That might motivate him into looking for your booklet.

It's a sad statement about the majority of the population and their respect towards things that belong to others. I see it in school everyday and it continues on into adulthood for many people. When something doesn't belong to them then they could give a rat's ass about it. I dont loan dvds out to anyone exceptmy parents and my firends who are alos dvd collectors and know how to handle the disc. You think people need to be given class on how to handle a disc without scratching it. Hello McFly are you there? Next we'll have to reteach them on how to tie their shoes.

I know that was meant sarcastically, but the other day I noticed that the selection of sneakers with old-fashioned laces was really small. Everything had stretchy, non-tie laces, or velcro.

You may be onto something!

I would think that would fall under the "people who aren't trustworthy with your things" group that I mentioned in my post.

But, knowing that they are "careful and trustworthy", would you let them borrow a DVD if they asked?

My horror story of a loaned dvd is especially painful 'caus it's my own damn fault.

There's a woman I know, who is the sweetest girl in the world. Really. Anyways, she's pretty much into the same movies and tv shows that I am (except for the more harder-edge/violent stuff), and I thought she'd love Gilmore Girls. So after watching the first disc together, I let her borrow the first two seasons. This was actually my suggetion, because she's so sweet, that she would never impose and ask to borrow it.

Whe she returned them, two of the discs from seaon 1 were scratched to hell, as was it's packaging, and one of the discs from season 2 has a crack forming from inside it's hub. I'm not surprised by the cracked hub, as the packging on that has a death grip on the discs. On the contrary, the season 1 set's hubs are sort of loose, and I'm betting the discs got loose and scratched up inside the case. I know she would never treat anything this way, so I'm hesitant to confront her about it, and she's so sweet, it would be akin to do the same so, say, Ghandi.

So it's actually more the fault of the packaging, but I should have just given her the discs in their own jewel cases, but I guess I didn't want to come off like the obsessive-compulsive man I really am...

- so does anyone know how to get separate discs of a box-set, without buying the whole box?

I would think there isn't really a way to get single discs from the set.

I wonder if I'll be able to get just the booklet. I may end up color xeroxing a friend's copy.

Check eBay . . . people sell individual discs from a set on a regular basis.

nevermind, I got confused with the name. it's brett lumpkin that was who I was thinking about. sorry. (I'll delete my post too )

I can think of maybe one or two I'd lend to, and then it depends on the DVD. An easily replaceable one? OK. Something like MSCL or my S2 LFN with the original music that got yanked and re-issued with replacement music? No. Even a careful person could have some unforeseen circumstance happen that could cause loss or damage, and it would be too difficult to replace.

By the same token, I don't ask to borrow other people's DVDs. I feel I can rent, visit the library or buy.

If I let someone borrow a DVD and didn't get something back with it, I would ask him outside and kick him in the nads.

What is MSCL and S2 LFN? I'm sure it's obvious.

I bet if you cut off their arms they wouldn't ask to borrow your DVD's anymore. I mean how awkward would that be, armless friend; "hey, can I borrow that SCTV DVD set of yours, and oh yeah and could you come over and put it in my player for me, and by the way while you're here can you feed me dinner."

The 11th commandment: Thou Shall NOT Borrow Another Mans DVD's!

Shall or shall not?

I'm thinking that it is probably "My So-Called Life" and "La Femme Nikita".

That would make sense. I've never seen either show so that must be why it didn't register.

But I did the see the film of LFN and I do have a life.

Yep. Sorry... forgot not everyone is familiar with the same stuff

hal9000, I believe the correct quote is, "Thou shall not covet another man's dvds."

As far as loaning out anything is concerned I have what I consider a good way to decide. First, is the person really trustworthy. When I say trustworthy I mean would the person make the effort, as I always do, to take even better care of whatever I was loaning him/her than something they owned themselves. Second, would this person let me borrow something that they valued just as much if I had asked for it or would they just tell me to go pound sand. Those are pretty much the two determining factors I use.

I will go on the record as saying I am highly anal retentive (and proud of it)about my collection as others here are, but with good reason as many others have stated. Also, if someone has a dvd recorder why not just burn a basic copy of the movie onto a dvdr or a dvdrw, charge the person for the cost of the disc if it is a dvdr and be done with it or just get the rw back after they are done with it. I know that right now people are reading this and groaning about copyright laws, etc, but if you keep getting the disc back and re-recording over it that seems like a way to go. That's always an option so long as people don't try to take advantage.

That being said, there are all of about 5 people that I know that I would loan anything in my collection out to.

jet

Doesn't it take several hours for a computer to get the data off of a dvd and then set the disc up for a burn? I've heard from people that this takes quite sometime.

Not really, the whole process could probably be done around an hour for someone with a reasonably/moderately fast computer and burner.

Actually, I own probably the only working stand-alone Apex DRX-9000 dvd recorder, so it really isn't much of a problem

jet